Vol. 1003 Wednesday, No. 1 13 January 2021 DÍOSPÓIREACHTAÍ PARLAIMINTE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES DÁIL ÉIREANN TUAIRISC OIFIGIÚIL—Neamhcheartaithe (OFFICIAL REPORT—Unrevised) Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders’ Questions 2 13/01/2021J00200Teachtaireacht ón Seanad - Message from Seanad 11 13/01/2021J00400An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business 11 Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation 13 13/01/2021R00600Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes: Statements 20 13/01/2021EE00200Covid-19 (Health): Statements 48 13/01/2021QQ00200Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers 73 DÁIL ÉIREANN Dé Céadaoin, 13 Eanáir 2021 Wednesday, 13 January 2021 Chuaigh an Ceann Comhairle i gceannas ar 12 pm Paidir. Prayer. Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders’ Questions 13/01/2021A00200An Ceann Comhairle: Fáilte roimh ar ais, a Theachtaí 13/01/2021A00300Deputy Mary Lou McDonald: Cuirim fáilte roimh an gach duine Yesterday was a difficult day right across the island. There were record numbers of deaths were North and South and it is only appropriate to express our sympathy to those who have been bereaved The mother and baby homes report was also published We will have an op- portunity to discuss that report in due course today For now, I wish to discuss the issue of housing In Fianna Fáil’s election manifesto last year, it promised 50,000 affordable homes over five years if in government. It also promised that an affordable housing scheme would deliver homes to buy for less than €250,000. When the Taoiseach appointed Deputy Darragh O’Brien as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in July, the Minister promised to have the scheme in place by September Before the budget, he stated that he would publish the scheme with targets and legislation However, the budget came and went with no affordable housing scheme launched. We were then told that the scheme would be ready in the autumn, but that deadline was also missed. At its final meeting of 2020, a memo was rushed to the Cabinet There was no legislation, no target The scheme has yet to be finalised. All the Cabinet agreed was that, at some point in 2021, the Government will introduce a significantly flawed and controversial shared equity loan scheme. That was not in Fianna Fáil’s election manifesto In fact, it is a policy that was drafted for the Government by the construction industry Last March, Irish Institutional Property, which represents 14 of the biggest players in the industry, published a shared equity loan proposal. IBEC’s property wing, Property Industry Ireland, published a similar proposal last May The proposal agreed by the Cabinet was almost identical to these Housing policy being directed by wealthy property developers and big landlords is what we have while ordinary people continue to live out the nightmare that is this housing crisis Many young people have given up any hope of ever owning their own homes Gone is Fi- 2 13 January 2021 anna Fáil’s promise to deliver affordable homes for less than €250,000. Gone is its promise to deliver 10,000 affordable houses to buy every year. Instead, the Government is going to saddle working people with large debts so that they can buy unaffordable homes. Its scheme will offer a first-time buyer a shared equity loan of up to €100,000 on top of a mortgage to buy a home to the value of €400,000. Worse still, if the value of the home increases, so does the equity stake. This means that the buyer will owe the State even more. Shared equity loan schemes push up prices. Everyone knows that. Even officials in the Departments of the Taoiseach and Public Expenditure and Reform have advised the Government of this fact In email correspondence dealing with the shared equity loan scheme that was released to our housing spokesperson, Deputy Ó Broin, Mr. Robert Watt is reported as saying that the property industry wanted an eq- uity scheme because it would push up prices. He was not alone in that regard. Another official stated that the provision might not be targeted at those most in need A third stated that it would push up prices in a supply-constrained environment Why is the Taoiseach allowing lobbyists for the property industry to write Government housing policy? Why has he ignored the advice of his own officials? Why has he abandoned his election promise to deliver affordable homes? 13/01/2021A00400The Taoiseach: On the first point, we are not allowing anybody to write our housing poli- cies Generally speaking, I think the budget was a landmark budget in terms of housing, with €3.1 billion allocation and the largest amount of social housing - to be built this year - on record. Obviously, Covid will interrupt that this month Be under no illusion - we are taking a multi- strand approach to housing There is strong investment in social housing in order to address homelessness and deal with the long waiting lists for such housing We are accelerating our ef- forts in that regard, which began prior to the budget in terms of getting voids back into operation and providing more than 2,500 local authority houses through investment This year will be quite dramatic in terms of the social housing output. This will be the result of the prioritisation afforded to social housing in the budget and the allocation of unprecedented funding to achieve that output Affordable housing and home ownership are significant planks in terms of the Govern- ment’s commitment in this area That is why we are continuing with the help-to-buy scheme and why we enhanced it in the July stimulus package I know that Sinn Féin opposed this It seems that the party is opposed to the concept of home ownership in general It has opposed many motions and voted against help-to-buy initiatives. In addition, it is against the equity scheme before it has even been established The objective behind the equity scheme is try to give young people the chance to buy homes and to enhance the affordability of homes. Matters are extremely difficult for them in this regard in the current circumstances and we are conscious of that We need a balanced approach and a suite of methods to deal with the housing crisis from homelessness in terms of the allocation of specific resources, reducing the amount of emergency accommodation and the number of people in such accommodation, building more social housing through approved housing bodies and local authorities and developing a strong affordable home dimension in order that younger people and those who are working will be in a position to own homes in the localities in which they reside Work in this regard is under way The Minister brought the outlines of legislation to the Government. That is being worked on and the various inputs from different officials and different policy perspectives will be assessed. The overall objective is to help people to be in a position to afford to buy homes. 3 Dáil Éireann The vast bulk of housing being built is social housing or individual homes There are no large developers involved in building massive housing estates right now That is clear from the figures. We need a sense of perspective when language is being bandied about. We need far more activity in the housing market than we currently have if we are to get to the 33,000 to 35,000 houses per annum the Economic and Social Research Institute estimates will be required in the coming years to deal with the housing crisis in a sustainable way 13/01/2021B00200Deputy Mary Lou McDonald: I am under absolutely no illusions, nor are the Taoiseach’s officials, that the proposed shared equity loan scheme will have the effect of forcing up prices and saddling those young people and working families to whom he refers with even more debt It seems clear that Fianna Fáil has learned nothing from the past and that we are back to the bad old days of developer-led housing policy in which the only people who will benefit from the Taoiseach’s shared equity loan scheme are the developers. The scheme will lock in already unaffordable prices and push them up even further. Of course, developers will be laughing all the way to the bank but young people and working families will face huge levels of debt The Taoiseach should have kept his election promise and funded local authorities to directly deliver the huge volume of genuinely affordable homes that we need. He could listen to his officials but instead he does what those in Fianna Fáil have always done, namely, listen to the big developers What big developers want, big developers get I ask the Taoiseach again why he has ignored the advice of his officials. Does he accept that he has been given the advice that the Government’s shared equity loan scheme is dangerous and flawed and will push up prices? 13/01/2021B00300The Taoiseach: I know what the Deputy is doing She is engaging in a political branding exercise rather than making a serious intervention on housing and housing policy Sinn Féin seems to be opposed to all home ownership initiatives by this Government and by previous Governments Fianna Fáil did one thing in the history of this country It was responsible for the massive social housing programme of the 1930s and right through the decades to the 1960s, in particu- lar, that dramatically transformed living conditions for many people Others were involved too Under this Government, we are determined to build 50,000 social houses over the next five years, working with local authorities and approved housing bodies to do that.